was a 16th century merchant in the Japanese port town of

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and incl ...

, and a master of the

tea ceremony An East Asian tea ceremony, or ''Chádào'' (), or ''Dado'' ( ko, 다도 (茶道)), is a ceremonially ritualized form of making tea (茶 ''cha'') practiced in East Asia by the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. The tea ceremony (), literally transla ...

. His ''

yagō , literally meaning "house name", is a term applied in traditional Japanese culture to names passed down within a guild, studio, or other circumstance other than blood relations. The term is synonymous with and . The term most often refers to the ...

'' was Naya.

Biography

A relative of the Amago and

Sasaki Sasaki () is the 13th most common Japanese surname. Less common variants are 佐咲, 佐佐木 and 笹木. Notable people with the surname include: Overview *, Japanese figure skater *, Japanese alpine skier *, Japanese idol and singer *, Japane ...

samurai clans, Sōkyū originally came from

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, the ...

. After settling in Sakai, he studied the tea ceremony under

Takeno Jōō was a master of the tea ceremony and a well-known merchant during the Sengoku period of the 16th century in Japan. His name has come down in Japanese cultural history because he followed Murata Jukō as an early proponent of wabi-cha, and was ...

, eventually marrying Jōō's daughter and inheriting his teawares and lineage as a tea master. In his business, Sōkyū traded primarily in firearms and ammunition. Around 1554, after donating a large sum to the

Daitoku-ji is a Buddhist temple, one of fourteen autonomous branches of the Rinzai school of Japanese Zen. It is located in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The "mountain name" ('' sangō'') by which it is known is . The Daitoku-ji temple complex today covers more ...

, he organized a shake-up in the local merchant circles by which he climbed into a position of considerable influence, and became a member of the city's leadership council. He traveled to the capital in 1568, where he met with warlord

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

, and presented him with some tea accoutrements which had belonged to earlier masters. He thus earned Nobunaga's favor, and was granted a noble title. Shortly afterwards, when Nobunaga sought to lay claim to Sakai, many members of the council debated seeking defense from the

Miyoshi clan is a Japanese family descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and the Minamoto clan (Seiwa-Genji). They were a cadet branch of the Ogasawara clan and the Takeda clan. At the beginning of the 14th century AD, Ogasawara Nagafusa settled in Shiko ...

, but Sōkyū was among those who suggested that the city submit. He acted as mediator to arrange the peaceful submission of the city, and was rewarded by Nobunaga with a lucrative commission to manufacture firearms for the

Oda clan The is a Japanese samurai family who were daimyo and an important political force in the unification of Japan in the mid-16th century. Though they had the climax of their fame under Oda Nobunaga and fell from the spotlight soon after, several ...

, and a post as a local magistrate. Sōkyū came to be responsible for tax collection in the outskirts of the city, and for pass-port applications and related matters. He was also assigned some jurisdiction over the nearby Tajima silver mine, and over the blacksmiths and metallurgists of the area, from whom he gathered materials to produce firearms and fireworks. Afterwards Sōkyū instructed Nobunaga in the ways of tea ceremony, also winning over the favor of

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

. Sōkyū was present during the

Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony The Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony (Japanese: 北野大茶湯; ''Kitano ōchanoyu''), also known in English as the Grand Kitano Tea Gathering, was a large Japanese tea ceremony event that was hosted by the regent and chancellor Toyotomi Hideyoshi at K ...

of 1587, and served as one of Hideyoshi's three tea masters, alongside

Sen no Rikyū , also known simply as Rikyū, is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on ''chanoyu,'' the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of '' wabi-cha''. He was also the first to emphasize several key aspects ...

and

Tsuda Sōgyū was a Japanese tea master. Biography Tsuda Sōgyū belonged to the influential family of merchants of Sakai whose business name was Tennōjiya. Together with his father, Tsuda Sōtatsu, he built the Tennōjiya into one of the most prosperous ...

. The same year, he helped prepare

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...

for a massive wooden statue of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

which Hideyoshi saw constructed. Sōkyū passed on his business and his official post to his son,

Imai Sōkun was a prominent weapons merchant in the Japanese port town of Sakai, and master of the Japanese tea ceremony. He was also known by the names Imai Hiratsuna and Imai Kanehisa. Sōkun was the son of weapons merchant and tea master Imai Sōkyū, a ...

, who would continue his father's legacy as tea master and advisor to Hideyoshi, and later to

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

. Sōkyū died in 1593, at the age of 73, leaving a number of books of memoirs and records. The Ōbaian, a teahouse related to him, still exists in Sakai's

Daisen Park Daisen can refer to: *Mount Daisen (大山) in Tottori Prefecture, Japan *Daisen, Tottori (大山町), a town in Tottori Prefecture, Japan *Daisen, Akita is a city in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 81,133 in 3 ...

. Sōkyū is buried at the Rinkō-ji in Sakai.

In popular culture

In the Honnouji kara Hajimeru Nobunaga to no Tenka Touitsu light novel series, the historical Imai Sokyu is depicted in the series as a famous merchant with great connections to both the Oda Clan and foreign merchants whom Oda Nobunaga introduced to the protagonist Makoto Kurosaka. Makoto was able to gain foreign products which are not commonly found in Sengoku period Japan through Imai Sokyu such as foreign spices. Sokyu would also became Makoto's purveyor.

References

*Frederic, Louis (2002). "Imai Sōkyū." Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. *Sansom, George (1961). ''A History of Japan: 1334-1615.'' Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p345. {{DEFAULTSORT:Imai, Sokyu 1520 births 1593 deaths Japanese tea masters Samurai 16th-century Japanese businesspeople